Johnson willing to wait for title shot

After his brutal victory over Ryan Bader, Anthony Johnson has confirmed that he is happy to wait to face the winner of the upcoming light heavyweight title fight between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones.

Johnson is now the most obvious candidate to next get a title shot at the light heavyweight division. Before that happens though Cormier and Jones need to have their rematch and no date has been confirmed for that bout.

UFC fighters are generally reluctant to allow for lengthy breaks between fights as it prevents them from earning large amounts of money generated from competing and also denies them the advantage of constantly being battle hardened.

However, it seems as if Johnson will do whatever it takes to ensure that he gets his shot at glory.

“Yep, that’s the biggest fight of my life. If they want to make me wait that long, I’ll definitely do it,” Johnson said at the post-fight news conference on Saturday.

“It gives me plenty of time to get ready for whoever.”

Johnson has already taken on Cormier and lost to the current champion by submission after nearly finishing the fight in the first round.

Reflecting on that clash, Johnson is adamant that he was not properly prepared as the fight was arranged at very short notice.

Should Johnson face Cormier again, he promises the outcome will be different.

“I was getting ready for Jon Jones not Daniel Cormier. It’s a big difference when you’re getting ready for 6-4 compared to 5-10, 5-11, something like that. I wasn’t (ready) but I still went out there and did my best,” Johnson explained.

“When I fought Daniel, the first round I dropped him and I came in and I tried to finish him and I gassed out. When you’re gassed and you’ve got somebody like Daniel Cormier on top of you grinding on you, it can do a lot to you mentally and damn near break you.”